LGUs cool to development funding
CEBU CITY — The Department of Agriculture (DA) in Central Visayas is calling for more project proposals from local government units in the region for funding under its Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP).
Melquiades Ibarra, Support Component head of the PRDP, said that there is a low turnout of project proposals from LGUs since the program started in 2014 and “we are winding up by 2020.”
Ibarra said only 23 projects worth more than R307.322 million have been approved since 2014.
Of the 23 projects, one farm-tomarket road project in San Agustin Canmaya Diot in Sagbayan, Bohol was completed on November 2016. |The rest are ongoing, Ibarra said.
The biggest project approved by the World Bank under the PRDP in Central Visayas is the Integrated Potable Water Supply project in Alegria, Cebu, that is worth more than R95.511million and almost 50 percent complete as of last May.
Of the four provinces in the region, Bohol has the highest submission and approval of projects at 17 – four on infrastructure/farm-to-market roads and 13 on livelihood enterprise, Ibarra said.
Cebu had only six funded projects found in Alegria, San Remegio and in Camotes Island worth more than R126.5 million that included the Alegria water project.
Cheryl dela Victoria, head of the INFOACE unit of the PRDP program here, told Manila Bulletin the PRDP provides funding for LGU proposed projects on infrastructure and countryside livelihood enterprise.
She added though that farm road networks, water supply, farm facilities, technology and information to raise incomes, productivity among the farmers and fisherfolk and other marginalized sectors are considered priority.
Dela Victoria named some of the approved projects as seaweed production; coconut-based product; native chicken, highland vegetables, beef, cattle and swine raising; dairy-buffalo production and processing; cassava, banana and other crops; mango and cacao as an emerging commodity.
When asked why there are few takers of the program, Dela Victoria said the local government lacks planning expertise and project proposal making.